Saxophone beginners Musings of a wannabe sax player

[nigeld]

If you want to play this piece, I think you will need to learn circular breathing. Notice how she plays bar after bar without stopping. But if you want to play this piece there are one or two other things you will need to learn as well, like arpeggios.

 

[Tasjii]

Concentrate on yer scale and chord exercises. Learn to transcend your instrument. Long tones yes but not one tone for twenty minutes.

I am practicing long notes, moving from one note to the next. Trying to get them to sound right straight away without having to move to them. I am practicing my scales (well the one I know so far) and timing. Timing is a biggy for me, not very good at that yet. But I am going slow and hopefully with practice I will be able to speed up before long.

 

[Tasjii]

If you want to play this piece, I think you will need to learn circular breathing. Notice how she plays bar after bar without stopping. But if you want to play this piece there are one or two other things you will need to learn as well, like arpeggios.

Wow just Wow! Gorgeous piece of music.

 

[garrobito]

If you want to play this piece, I think you will need to learn circular breathing. Notice how she plays bar after bar without stopping. But if you want to play this piece there are one or two other things you will need to learn as well, like arpeggios.

Impressive demonstration of technique and control... Thanks you for sharing!

 

[Tiberius]

Concentrate on...

Now I know this is going to be...contentious, but as a beginner I found I made more progress when I didn't concentrate on anything particular. And I've seem people hit a block when they did...tone, scales, breathing; whatever it was. My best progress has been when I took the whole rather than concentrate on any particular (other than concentrating on having fun).

 

[StageFright]

Now I know this is going to be...contentious, but as a beginner I found I made more progress when I didn't concentrate on anything particular. And I've seem people hit a block when they did...tone, scales, breathing; whatever it was. My best progress has been when I took the whole rather than concentrate on any particular (other than concentrating on having fun).

Similar experience here as well with a slightly different twist. I follow a more structured practice routine (long tones, scales, etc.) but when I hit a wall I back off for a week or so and just pick up random sheet music or tunes form a song book and play them without much regard for anything in particular. I find this resets my frame of mind and gets me over the wall and I can return to structured practice again. An unexpected side effect of this has been that I've become quite good at sight reading music without ever intentionally working at it. 😎

 

[Ivan]

Reading this thread is a reminder of how hard it can be to get going on sax

But as @Jeanette says with lots of practice you will move forward more than fall back

There may always be moments when you get dispirited.... It still happens to me... But it's amazing how putting in the time builds skill

 

[Alice]

On the other hand.... I do concentrate. I don't get stressed but I do concentrate hard at what I want to achieve during my practice sessions. I always start with some various scales because they get the air blowing and my fingers flowing but I listen to what I'm doing and keep going until I'm happy.
In the members resources and as part of the Taming the Sax bundle there are some great backing tracks. I love to play with those or put a rhythm section together in Garage band and experiment with that. I am not a great sight reader. My biggest challenge is that and for that I definitely need to concentrate or I'm lost.

 

[garrobito]

Now I know this is going to be...contentious, but as a beginner I found I made more progress when I didn't concentrate on anything particular. And I've seem people hit a block when they did...tone, scales, breathing; whatever it was. My best progress has been when I took the whole rather than concentrate on any particular (other than concentrating on having fun).

Same here... I'm not concentrate on nothing in particular.. a little scales, a little fun tried new notes or going up and down with volume, a little more fun practicing speed with my fingers...
Yesterday I join my church band (on the brass side have 2 trumpet and 1 alto sax and me, a tenor). Was a great experience! The director is a sax player so handle me my part and ask me practice apart. Like 1 hour later he check on me and we join in a brass ensemble... Everybody was patient and the whole experience was great! After a couple hours we're able to play our part in a cumbia.
Join a band is a good experience, help with the perception of music and intonation and rhythmic.. I would suggest strongly tried to join one, even with low resources (I just play 2 mayor scales).

 

[Tasjii]

Now I know this is going to be...contentious, but as a beginner I found I made more progress when I didn't concentrate on anything particular. And I've seem people hit a block when they did...tone, scales, breathing; whatever it was. My best progress has been when I took the whole rather than concentrate on any particular (other than concentrating on having fun).

I think I know what you mean, I had my second lesson yesterday and my tutor said that I am concentrating too much on the written music, so the piece I am attempting to play isn't flowing. Basically I am trying too hard to get it right straight away, so he told me to relax, that it is OK to make mistakes. The main thing I need to practice is to keep the music flowing, I keep "falling over" the bar dividers in the written music, so I need to look at the whole of the piece rather than looking at a bar at a time. I need to learn to play phrases and practice keeping in time....

 

[Tasjii]

Reading this thread is a reminder of how hard it can be to get going on sax

But as @Jeanette says with lots of practice you will move forward more than fall back

There may always be moments when you get dispirited.... It still happens to me... But it's amazing how putting in the time builds skill

I am managing to do practice about 45 minutes a day, which in my busy life is quite the achievement. I wish I could practice more on a regular basis, but my tutor thought 45 minutes a day is a good effort.

 

[StageFright]

I am managing to do practice about 45 minutes a day, which in my busy life is quite the achievement. I wish I could practice more on a regular basis, but my tutor thought 45 minutes a day is a good effort.

Time is always a problem. The important thing is to really try and get some time in every day. 45 minutes a day sounds like a great start. I'm always shooting for at least an hour, but my boss frowns on my practicing in the office 🙂